East Side Thunder 6U 2016

Here is our little left outfielder.  He went from short stop to left outfield for the summer all star season. At first I was a little disappointed until I realized these all stars all hit the balls to the outfield, not like rec at this age when they are all in the infield. He has gotten quite a bit of action out there and has done a great job backing up the 3rd base man and making some great plays to third and second base. I am proud of him

We have had 3 tournaments so far. We had lost to the Canton Stingers twice and Sandy Plains once, other than that we have won all the games.  They are a talented little team that just needs to learn how to play together. We had a team full of first base and short stops. Now they are learning new positions and doing great. Drew is #2 this season, he chose #2 for Derek Jeter. He has about 10 books at home about Jeter and loves to read them over and over again.   The first tournament of the season Drew hit a home run OVER the fence. It was awesome and Todd, Hannah and I were jumping up and down with excitement. A home run is always cool, but over the fence for a 6 year old is just awesome. He was one proud little boy.

This is the look of a 6 year old that played 3 games in one day in 96 degree heat. That's exhaustion.

This picture is from last week's district tournament on Friday night. Since they won both games they went straight to the championship on Sunday.

And they won, 18-14. The boys played tough and it was a fun game to watch. Since they won districts, they advance to the state finals 4th of July weekend right outside of Chattanooga, TN. The kids are so excited about the tournament mostly because they get to stay in a hotel and swim :) 

District win family photo. Drew's cheering squad.

It's hot, it's fun, it's exhausting. Drew loves it. The biggest shocker of it all, Hannah loves it?!? That is one I was not expecting. She gets disappointed on weekends that we don't have a game.  It has been a great time overall for the entire family. It has actually forced us to spend a lot of time together as the 4 of us vs the kids going their separate ways to sleep overs and friends houses all summer. Even better, we have met some amazing families and new friends along the way. The parents and kids on this team are all amazing. Hannah has made friends with all the siblings from his team. They sit and watch the game and cheer their brothers on, and right after the game they all run off to play pickle and jackpot together. I am so happy that hannah is enjoying it more than anything as I was worried it was going to be a long summer for her. She has gotten really into baseball. She even tells me how she would do the batting line up differently and tell me which kids on the team won't listen to the coach and the mistakes they made because of it. Who knew?

We will see how long Drew plays, but baseball is currently his passion and loves baseball more than any other sport he has tried. We have three tournaments left this summer then he will do soccer at Mt Bethel this fall which is super low key. He is already asking to play baseball in the fall again but we have not decided yet, thinking a break would be good for him but he seems to love it so much so we will see!

Wish the Thunder good luck over the next week so they can beat those darn Canton Stingers and Sandy Plain Red so they can bring back a state title!